Why Goats and Goat Milk?

Eight years ago when we moved back to the Pacific Northwest, our family vision was to turn our one acre homestead into a little farm where the kids could grow up raising animals (we were thinking bigger responsibility than dogs and cats), learn about gardening and growing their own food and getting involved in community activities. Mind you we had 6 children still at home ranging from age 19 to 1. Was I completely crazy and insane – YES – possibly NO! It wasn’t like we bought a fully functioning dairy farm or something.

We got chickens first and we didn’t manage to lose any of them, we put in a medium size garden, we fenced in the front yard after having a mild heart attack when our littlest child wandered onto our country road while older sisters weren’t watching him. It wouldn’t have been that bad if the people driving on this road would obey the speed limit. We were feeling good, we were feeling like homesteaders.

So, one day I asked if we could get a dairy goat so that the kids could learn to milk and possibly show goats for 4-h. Did I do any research on raising goats before buying them? Well, Um, Ah-hem, was I suppose to?

The General Manager promptly said, “No!” He even said this with A LOT of emphasis on the word, like when someone says it real slow so you don’t miss that they just shot your idea down!

Fast forward several months, plus add in 4 little girls’ big brown eyes batting at their daddy and we purchased our first goat. We were goat owners now! We found out quickly you need to get goats in pairs because they get lonely and then they make the most heart wrenching noise which actually sounds like children dying. I know this only because our neighbor 2 fields (yes, I actually said 2 fields – which is the equivalent of 3 – 4 blocks for city people) away called and asked if one of our children had been maimed in a car accident.

Since then I have done my due diligence (ie. research) on goats and why we should keep them. I can’t even begin to delve into the health benefits of drinking raw goat milk – one because there is so much great information, but also because it’s highly controversial. This isn’t Facebook and I don’t have time for rants from opposing sides today. BUT, Goat milk is so amazingly awesome for the health of our skin that it does merit expressing that information to you.

I get absolutely giddy when I talk about how great goat milk has been for my own skin. I’m pushing the BIG 50 soon and wrinkles are appearing in places on my face that I wasn’t ready for! Can anyone relate? Let me just say that I was blown away when I found out how many vitamins and minerals are in fresh goat milk and that these vitamins and minerals get absorbed directly into our skin.

Let’s jump right in because I can’t contain myself for another moment.

Alpha-Hydroxy acid and Lactic Acid – Most women have heard these words before because they are plastered all over any type of beauty product that focuses on anti-aging. These powerhouses remove all the dead skin cells on our body so that we generate new cell growth. Think New Cells= New Skin = Healthy glow!

Vitamin A – This amazing vitamin is key in reducing wrinkles. Need I say anymore ladies? I thought not!

Selenium – This was not one I was familiar with when I first learned about goats, but goat owners know how vital selenium is to their herd health, so if it’s super important to goat health, it stands to reason that it would be important to ours. Scientists believe that selenium aids in the prevention of skin cancer as it prevents damage from excessive sun exposure.

As a personal testimony, I used to have dark rings around the outer portions of my eyes – it was a combo freckle/dark circle looking thing – not very attractive in my mind and it aged my appearance a lot. After using my goat milk lotion religiously as a facial moisturizer, those dark circles are gone and they don’t even reappear in the summer months when I’m exposed to more sunlight.

Finally, while not a vitamin or a mineral, I saved the best for last. Goat milk is superty duperty creamy and it’s this cream that helps your dry skin like nothing else. Just ask any person with REALLY dry skin – like worse than overcooked chicken with sand on top – and they will tell you within two weeks of using goat milk soap that their skin is breathing a sigh of relief!

Are you convinced yet? If nothing else, I hope this post has shed some light on why I include goat milk into our products that we make and sell. Without goat milk, our soaps and lotions would just be another run-of-the-mill lotion or soap on the shelves at Target. I will be forever grateful for these animals that give us such a spectacular product that we can use to boost our health and skin care.